Education

TSC begins deployment of 1,206 primary school teachers to junior secondary schools

Teachers Service Commission CEO Nancy Macharia. (Photo: TSC)

By Lucy Mumbi | Wednesday, May 29, 2024

The deployment aims to address teacher shortages and imbalances in subject combinations in junior secondary sections.

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has initiated the deployment of 1,206 primary school teachers to Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) nationwide as part of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) implementation.

The deployment aims to address teacher shortages and imbalances in subject combinations in junior secondary sections.

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TSC Acting Director of Human Resources Antonina Lentoijoni instructed all district, and sub-district directors to screen and deploy eligible teachers within 14 days.

“You are required to ensure that staffing positions in primary schools are updated and teacher rationalisation is conducted within 14 days after deployment to ensure that the teaching-learning process continues,” Lentoijoni said in a memo dated May 23.

The memo notes that only teachers qualified to teach in secondary schools and currently employed by TSC are eligible for deployment.

Exclusion

Meanwhile, teachers holding a Bachelor of Education (primary option) degree are excluded.

Eligible teachers must also have expressed interest in moving to JSS and be listed by the TSC head office.

Directors were also directed to avoid assigning multiple teachers with the same subject expertise to the same institution unless the school specifically needs more than one teacher for that subject.

The goal according to Lentoijoni is to prevent an oversupply of teachers for certain subjects while ensuring that other subjects, which might be understaffed, receive adequate teaching resources.

“Unless a station requires more than one teacher of the same subject combination, sub-county directors should not deploy teachers of similar subject combinations with those already posted to JS,” Lentoijoni said.

Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) secretary for secondary schools, Henry Obwocha, praised the initiative, noting it would help address the acute teacher shortage in junior secondary schools.

“The transfers are a major move by TSC, even as we seek to have more teachers employed and posted to secondary schools in the country, which has a skewed teacher-student ratio at a time we are rolling out the CBC system of education,” Obwocha said.

He also pointed out that many teachers with diplomas have upgraded their qualifications to university degrees through school-based programs but remain in primary schools.

There have been petitions to promote and deploy them to secondary schools.

He called for the 46,000 teachers on contract to be made permanent and pensionable in the 2024/2025 financial year.

“Plans by TSC to employ 26,000 teachers are welcome, but we hold the position as a union that the 46,000 employed under contracts should all be absorbed under permanent and pensionable terms,” he said.